Thank you to LA Pulse Mag x Collective Lifestyle LA for hosting last week's listening party for HBK CJ's new album Crash Course 2.
CRISTIAN PLASCENCIA
We'd like to introduce you guys to our good friend, Cristian Plascencia. Cristian is a recent college graduate who is pursuing his dreams of one day becoming apart of a professional basketball training staff. Here's a little more on his story:
"Wassup y'all! My name is Cristian George Plascencia and I am a Salinas, CA native. I am currently 23 years old and have spent the last 22.5 years in between both Northern and Southern California. I graduated from California Lutheran University in the Spring of 2015 with a B.S. in Exercise Science after spending my first two years at Cal State University Channel Islands. When I was 11 years old, I sprained my ankle playing the game I love (basketball) and was forced to go into Physical Therapy. I will forever remember that day as it sparked the flame that is still lit today. That flame is my love and passion for fitness and the human body. Motivated and naive, I told myself I would one day become a doctor of physical therapy for the Los Angeles Lakers. This led me to completing 400 hours of PT internship hours before the time I set foot on a college campus. I had experienced rehabilitation practiced with individuals from elite athletes to patients with Multiple Sclerosis from offices in San Francisco, CA to hospitals in Southern California. It wasn't until my senior year of college that I decided to apply to not only Physical Therapy schools for graduate programs, but also programs for strength, conditioning, and human performance. During this time, I was also granted a two week internship at an unconventional fitness gym by the name of Onnit Academy in Austin, TX. Having experienced training Division III athletes in the weight room including the football, track and field, and volleyball teams, as well as conducting 2 research projects during my undergraduate career, put me in an opportune position to receive such an internship. I will also never forget the 10 clients/classmates/homies for life that trusted me to train them early mornings and late nights in my garage in Camarillo, CA. After the two weeks at Onnit, I was offered a job as a personal trainer for general population clients here in Austin, TX. I was also admitted into the Exercise Science graduate program at University of Texas in Austin (UT). Although, after a month of school, Onnit offered me a full time position. Today, I am currently training general population clients, elite athletes (NFL, NBA, MLB, UFC, NCAA) as well as teaching seminars for continued education courses where a group of colleagues and I certify doctors, therapist, and trainers to become certified personal trainers underneath Onnit Academy. I will say that without the trust and love from my family, nothing would have been possible. Also the love and support I receive from my old college roommates/classmates keeps me hungry and motivated to one day be apart of a professional basketball training staff. If not, this awesome place I call home here at Onnit Academy is a dream come true. I can say that being here for six months, I have yet to work a day as the love I have for fitness keeps me blinded to the late nights and early mornings."
Follow Cristian on Instagram at: @see_dotg.
SAN FRANCISCO | DAY 1
Four friends, one ginormous city, and the new year. What better way to bring in 2016 then with a last minute trip up the coast? And how bad could things get with a good-sized swell headed right for Ocean Beach?
Well...it didn’t take long for things to get interesting. Not even 40 minutes into our trip, Keegan realized he had forgotten his wetsuit at the house, so we had to turn around. (Are you kidding me!?). In his defense, we had left the house at 3:00am and he had gotten off work at 2. Straight from an 8 hour night shift into a crammed Ford Focus stacked with coats, surfboards, and soaking wet wetsuits from the day before. We turned around in Santa Barbara, floored in back to Camarillo, and grabbed a few essentials and we were off again.
Fast forward, another 3 hours and things got even more hectic. Just on the other side of San Luis Obispo (in the middle of nowhere) we were 25 miles until empty and only 12 miles to the nearest gas station. I pulled into the far right lane, coasting at 55 mph, and hoped for the best. At 18 miles, the car started chugging and then the inevitable happened. We were stuck. It was 23 degrees outside, our car was packed to the brim, and we weren’t going anywhere. Do we call AAA or just start walking?
While all of us were sorting through our wallets trying to find our AAA cards, Tracy thought of calling one of our friends who was making the trip up to SF with us to see if they grab us some gas on their way. They were only 30 minutes behind us and said they’d pick some up. Four guys in a stuffed Ford Focus was pretty entertaining. It was in the mid-20s outside and being from southern California we thought it was going to start snowing at any second. (It never did.) After another 45 minutes, we finally linked up with our friends, filled up with a couple gallons, and moseyed on over to the nearest gas station.
We had been on the road for only 4 hours and we’d already forgotten a wetsuit, run out of gas, and we still had another 3 hours to go until we reached the city. It felt like we were driving and going no-where.
We drove another 2 and a half hours (after re-fueling a number of times) and we were finally starting to see signs for San Francisco. 100 miles away. 85 miles. 50. 20. And then we saw it. It was like we had all just run a marathon and we finally had the finish line in our sights.
We drove around for a bit to check out the sights then made it to where we were staying for the next 3 days and got to unpacking. It was roughly 2 o’clock at this point. Yes, I know we lagged. But the important part was that we made it and we were all in one piece. We got our boards and suits together and headed to the beach.
In the days leading up to the trip, we had been watching videos of pumping surf at Ocean Beach. 8-10ft barrels spitting their brains out. With the forecast looking favorable we were hoping for something similar. When we reached the parking lot, we were a bit stunned. Uhhhh, is this it? It was barely head high and there were only a handful of guys out. Why couldn’t we have pulled up to pumping OB?
We watched the waves for another 30 minutes and then Keegan and I finally had had enough and we were going to paddle out. Neither of us had surfed this far north before and we were prepped for the cold. Armed with booties, a fresh 4/3, and hoods, we ran down to the line-up. We started paddling out and saw a proper set roll through and things took a turn for the better. Wedge after wedge started rolling through and we were by ourselves.
With the skyline behind us and row after row of housing, we had never seen a more attractive backdrop for a session. We surfed for about an hour and had the time of our lives. That session will go down in history. It wasn’t that the waves or weather were perfect, but it was the progression of our trip.
We had forgotten a wetsuit, run out of gas, missed our exits off the freeway, and almost been in a number of car accidents, but we had finally completed what we had set out to do. It was the perfect day in the weirdest of ways, but it was a great way to cap off 2015.
